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I have been told by a member of the board of one ofCanada's most prominent literary magazines that a submissionof mine once caused a great deal of controversy.- John Barton

Writing can sometimes be exploitative.I like to take a few steps of remove in order to respectthe privacy of the subject.If readers make the link, they have engaged with the poem.- John Barton

In the past, poetry came in the form of spells andchants used to effect change.- John Barton

I became intrigued with colour theory.The absurd pronouncements of the Colour Institute,a group that decides what colours are hot each year or season,amused me.- John Barton

I sometimes like to tinker with poems that have failed,ones that I have sent aside.Even years afterward, I will revisit them if thereis something about them that I cannot give up on.- John Barton

Poetry is but another form of inquiry into the nature of phenomena,using with its own unique procedures and tools.- John Barton

To me many short poems read and write like beginningsthat simply whet my appetite;I want to get over that.- John Barton

I find it exhausting to administer a magazine without an office or paid staff.- John Barton

Poets can't resist the dramatic pull of their livesand so inevitably write autobiographical verse.- John Barton

Most victims of my autobiographical verse are either far too polite,remarkably understanding unaware that I have written poems about them.- John Barton

Who is the ideal reader? God only knows.- John Barton

If poetry alters the way in which the reader views the world,then it has had its desired effect.- John Barton

An experienced reader uses the poem as an agent of inquiry.This makes poetry very exciting, unstable,and interactive.- John Barton

I have always been very obsessed with time.Time's passage makes us all very vulnerable and becausewe all experience it in our own way,it can make us feel very alone.- John Barton

I would not say I chose to write long poems on a conscious level.The long poem has been a relative constant.- John Barton

I consider a poem to be a kind of experiment wherea number of elements are brought together under testconditions to see how they will interact to create meaning or relevance.- John Barton

Some readers allow their prejudices to blind them.A good reader knows how to disregard inappropriate responses.- John Barton

The community of poets I belong to is not as close as it used to be,if only for the fact that our lives have become busier:jobs,children, and the like.- John Barton

A literary journal is intended to connect writer with reader;the role of the editor is to mediate.- John Barton

The point of an experiment is not to arrive at a predetermined end point,to prove or disprove anything, but to deliver a poemthat reveals much about the process taken.- John Barton

The poet must decide not to impose his feelings inorder to write without sentimentality.- John Barton

We are comfortable with the fact that we cannot knowpersonally what happened in the world before we were born,yet we are uncomfortable with the notion that we willstop engaging with time at some point in the future.- John Barton

The experiment of the poem is mostly intuitive.I write the first draft, pulling in the various elements that interest me,in the hope that their being combined will lead to some kind of insight.- John Barton

Poets have to be sensitive to their audience,but it does not mean that they censor themselves.I realise my audience is diverse.Some will read with empathy and curiosity while others will take offense.- John Barton

My obsession with time informs my poetry so completelyit is hard for me to summarize it.We want time to pass, for new things to happen to us,we want to hold on to certain moments,we don't want our lives to end.- John Barton

The jump is so frighteningbetween where I am,and where I want to be.Because of all I may become,I will close my eyes and leap.- Mary Anne Radmacher

Our lives begin to end the day we become silentabout things that matter.- Martin Luther King, Jr.

What we think, we become.All that we are arises with our thoughts.With our thoughts, we make the world.- The Buddha

When the vast cathedral of our beingbecomes a sanctuary for all creation,we become the face of God.- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

If I try to be like him, who will be like me?- Yiddish proverb

When I let go of what I am,I become what I might be.- Lao Tzu

Appreciate again and again, freshly and naively,the basic goods of life, with awe,pleasure, wonder and even ecstasy,however stale these experiences may have become to others.- Abraham Maslow

Have the courage to follow your heart and intuition -they somehow already know what you truly want to become.- Steve Jobs

Dare to dream of your great success.Become intimate with those thingswhich deeply motivate youand regularly work towardthe realization of that mission.- Mary Anne Radmacher

We must become the change we wish to see in the world.- Mohandas (Mahatma) Gandhi

Become "a lover of what is."- Byron Katie

It takes courage to grow up and become who you really are.- e. e. cummings

Pay attention to rainbows, and snowflakes,butterflies and the songs of birds,the crash of storm-driven wavesand the mirror-surface of a quiet pond.Let the depths of nature become a part of your innermost being.- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Be - don't try to become.Being is enlightenment, becoming is ignorance.- Osho

Watch your thoughts, for they become words.Watch your words, for they become actions.Watch your actions, for they become habits.Watch your habits, for they become character.Watch your character, for it becomes your destiny.- Anonymous

The highest reward for a person's toilis not what they get for it,but what they become by it.- John Ruskin

How you respond to the challenge in the second halfwill determine what you become after the game,whether you are a winner or a loser.- Lou Holtz

What you get by achieving your goals is not as importantas what you become by achieving your goals.- Henry David Thoreau

By having a reverence for life,we enter into a spiritual relation with the world.By practicing reverence for life we become good, deep, and alive.- Albert Schweitzer

Learn to become still. And to take your attentionaway from what you don't want, and all the emotional charge around it,and place your attention on what you wish to experience.- Michael Beckwith

If I am happy in spite of my deprivations,if my happiness is so deep that it is a faith,so thoughtful that it becomes a philosophy of life.If, in short, I am an optimist,my testimony to the creed of optimism is worth hearing.- Helen Keller...Helen Keller (1880-1968) overcame being both deaf and blindto become a famous author, lecturer, and activistfor women's suffrage, workers' rights, and ending war.

When you find peace within yourself,you become the kind of person who can live at peace with others.- Peace Pilgrim

You must not lose faith in humanity.Humanity is an ocean; if a few drops of the ocean are dirty,the ocean does not become dirty.- Mohandas (Mahatma) Gandhi

When any situation arises which tempts you to become disturbed,say: "There is another way of looking at this."- A Course In Miracles

The mind is everything.What you think you become.- The Buddha

An error does not become truthby reason of multiplied propagation,nor does truth become error because nobody sees it.- Mohandas (Mahatma) Gandhi

Try not to become a man of success,but rather try to become a man of value.- Albert Einstein

Let today be the day that you chooseto become your own greatest Hero.- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

It is not what we get.But who we become, what we contribute...that gives meaning to our lives.- Tony Robbins

It is never too late to become what you might have been.- George Eliot

Become more and more innocent,less knowledgeable and more childlike.Take life as fun -because that's precisely what it is!- Osho

No one has ever become poor by giving.- Anne Frank

Great people are those who make others feelthat they, too, can become great.- Mark Twain

We become not a melting pot but a beautiful mosaic.Different people, different beliefs,different yearnings, different hopes, different dreams.- Jimmy Carter

Our ordinary mind always tries to persuade usthat we are nothing but acornsand that our greatest happiness will beto become bigger, fatter, shinier acorns;but that is of interest only to pigs.Our faith gives us knowledge of something better:that we can become oak trees.- E. F. Schumacher

We are shaped by our thoughts;we become what we think.When the mind is pure, joy followslike a shadow that never leaves.- The Buddha

Success comes from knowing thatyou did your best to become the bestthat you are capable of becoming.- John Wooden

When we blindly adopt a religion,a political system, a literary dogma,we become automatons. We cease to grow.- Anais Nin